Three scientists shared this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing techniques to synthesize complex carbon molecules that have had an enormous impact on the manufacture of medicines and other products, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Wednesday.

The winners are Richard F. Heck, 79, a retired University of Delaware professor now living in the Philippines; Ei-ichi Negishi, 75, a chemistry professor at Purdue University; and Akira Suzuki, 80, a professor at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.

A U.S. and two Japanese scientists won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for inventing new ways to bind carbon atoms with uses that range from fighting cancer to producing thin computer screens.

Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki shared the prize for the development of "palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling," the Nobel Committee for Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2010 to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for developing new ways of linking carbon atoms together that has allowed scientists to make medicines and better electronics.

American citizen Richard F. Heck, 79, of the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, Japanese citizens Akira Suzuki, 80, of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, and Ei-Ichi Negishi, 75, of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, will share the 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.5 million) award for their development of "palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic systems."